


To The End And Back

by JayYoshii



Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Angst, Blood and Gore, Demonic Possession, F/M, Gen, Implied Relationships, M/M, Manipulation, Mind Manipulation, Near Death, Near Death Experiences, No Smut, One-Sided Attraction, Panic Attacks, Phobias, Trust Issues, Violence, eventually idk
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-08
Updated: 2021-02-10
Packaged: 2021-03-05 20:13:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 15,403
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25781170
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JayYoshii/pseuds/JayYoshii
Summary: After trying out an RLCraft server whose IP was given to him by a fan, Skeppy and his friends get trapped inside the server by an unknown force. Surviving in a ruthless world where everything is out to kill them certainly won't be easy, but maybe with outside help they can free the End and go back to the real world.But who truly is behind the imprisonment, though? And what would have compelled them to do it?((IF YOU DO NOT ENJOY ANY OF THE THINGS LISTED IN THE TAGS, I DON'T RECOMMEND YOU READ THIS))
Relationships: Clay | Dream/GeorgeNotFound (Video Blogging RPF), Zak Ahmed/Darryl Noveschosch
Comments: 21
Kudos: 186





	1. Author's Note

Hello to whoever is reading this fanfiction! You can call me JY, the weirdo who likes Minecraft YouTubers so much she made an entire fanfiction of them

This isn't the first time I've written a story, but it's the first story I have ever posted because I am not very confident in my writing skills

This author's note is mainly to get a bit more in depth about what the story will include. If you do not like any of the things listed below, I don't recommend you read this (even though I'd love it if you did)

_**This fic includes:** _

• Swearing. I have no filter, and can't pass up an opportunity to say bad words in a story  
• Blood and gore descriptions  
• Demonic possession™  
• Implied DreamNotFound (they'll have actions and interactions that are mostly perceived as romantic, lots of sappy and obviously not platonic "I love you"s, etc., but if you _really_ want to, you can see it as platonic) and ambiguous Skephalo (it's meant to be platonic, but they'll have actions and interactions that can be perceived as platonic or romantic, it's up to the reader), though ships aren't the focus of the story. There's also a ship between the original characters, but it's one-sided, rarely brought up and it goes nowhere so who cares?  
• OCs interacting with "canon". I make characters at alarming speeds and couldn't help sneaking some into this fanfiction

_**This fic does NOT include:** _

• Smut, or anything sexual. There is 0 smut allowed. This is a Christian fanfic tyvm (and besides, this is more of an action story, ships aren't the main focus anyways, why tf would I add smut even if I wanted/was able to) _ **  
**_

Without further ado, I hope you enjoy the fanfic! I'll try to update as regularly as I can, but I am incredibly lazy, so I can't guarantee anything

Also, logically, I mean no harm to any of the content creators featured in this story. If any of them are uncomfortable with this fanfiction, I will take it down. This goes without saying, but please do not harass creators and don't write sexual shit of real people even if they say they are comfortable with it you nasty <3

_-JY_


	2. Prologue

There are some days when you feel particularly uncreative. Days where no matter how hard you try to think of something, you can’t, and you just stand there looking dejected.

Zak was having one of those days.

He sat at his desk, tapping it with the tip of his fingers and staring at his computer screen, his brows furrowed, waiting for something, _anything_ , to suddenly pop up in his mind. Being a gaming YouTuber that specialized in one specific game could be hard sometimes. You’d run out of ideas sooner or later, and you’d have to either diverge from your usual content or use the same idea more than once, both of which Zak had done before. But for this video, he wanted to do something special. Something he doesn’t do often.

He just didn’t know _what_.

Zak groaned in annoyance, slamming his fist lightly on the table in mild frustration.

 _Why am I putting so much thought into this?’_ he thought. _‘I can just troll Bad again if I don’t have any ideas. The fans seem to like that.’_

Lost in thought, he absentmindedly opened a tab on his email account. As he looked at the hundreds of unopened emails he had, one of them caught his eye.

“Special RLCraft server…” he read out loud.

He faintly remembered having played RLCraft in the past. It was a much more unforgiving version of Minecraft with many changes to make it more “realistic”, even though the mobs in the mod weren’t realistic at all in Zak’s eyes.

Out of curiosity, Zak decided to take a brief look at the email. He clicked it and began reading:

_“Hey, Skeppy! I’m a big fan of yours and I decided to make a special RLCraft server for you to play. Here is the IP:_

_XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX_

_I really wish you could play it, even if you didn’t make a video on it. The changes might not be apparent in the beginning, but trust me, you’ll soon see the differences.”_

Zak stared at the server IP skeptically. He’d think the sender would have at least given a hint as to what the differences were, but apparently that was not the case.

 _‘Would this be a good idea for a video?’_ he wondered. _‘I mean, my fans really enjoyed the RLCraft video and wanted me to make more… Maybe I could try it out. Besides, if it doesn’t work out, there’s always plan B,’_ Zak smiled to himself. _‘the good old BadBoyHalo troll.’_

He quickly got on Discord and called his friend, smiling widely. He didn’t understand why he was so excited, but he was eager to try it out.

BadBoyHalo quickly picked up. “Skeppy?” he murmured almost sleepily. “What do you-”

“Hey Bad!” Zak interrupted loudly. He heard a sudden shuffle from the other side of the call and fought back a snicker.

“Wh- don’t just suddenly _yell_ like that, you muffin!” he complained. “It’s late!”

Zak giggled at Bad’s response, which just made him sigh in annoyance.

“So what did you call me for?” Bad questioned.

“I have a video idea!” Zak told him excitedly.

“Can’t it wait until tomorrow?” Bad asked, sounding tired. “It’s almost 11PM right now.”

“Aw, c’mon!” Zak whined. “It’s gonna be fun!”

Bad sighed. Zak could practically hear his eyeroll from the other side of the screen. “Alright, if you say so. What’s your idea?”

He quickly told him about the RLCraft server IP he had been sent in an email.

“Doesn’t it sound fun?” he asked as soon as he was done.

“I don’t know about this, Skeppy.” Bad muttered. “What if they’re trying to trick you?”

“What if they _aren’t_?” Zak shot back, somewhat childishly.

“That doesn’t answer my question.”

“Yeah, yeah, you’re just scared of going back to RLCraft.”

“I am _not_!” Bad said defensively.

“Look, Bad, as much as I also don’t want to experience RLCraft again, this server could be interesting.” Zak continued. “Besides, the fans like it when we play together.”

“I still don’t really trust this…” Bad muttered.

“Ooh, look at me, I’m Bad and I’m scared of a block game.” Zak teased.

“Oh my goodness, Skeppy, fine! I’ll play it with you if you shut up!” Bad yelled as Zak giggled at him. Suddenly, he let out a quiet “Oh!” as if he had just thought of something. “Actually, what if I get some other friends to play too?”

“You mean Dream and his gang?” Zak shrugged although he knew Bad couldn’t see him. “Why not? The more the merrier, I guess.”

“Nice! I’m sure they’ll be interested in playing it!” Bad squeaked excitedly.

“So, at what time are you available to record it?” Zak asked. “I was thinking of tomorrow at 9AM. Is that good?”

“Yeah, it’s good for me, but I still think we should make sure that there isn’t anything wrong with the server before we start recording…” Bad pressed.

Zak groaned loudly, acting as though he was more annoyed than he actually was. “Ugh, _fine_ , we’ll join it off-camera first to make sure it doesn’t suck out our souls or something, if that makes you feel better.” he told Bad, who replied with a little “Thank you”. Zak copied the server IP to his direct messages with Bad. “I’m sending you the IP now. See you tomorrow morning!”

“Bye!” Bad chimed. “Sleep tight!”

They both left the call.

Zak sighed happily as he thought about the server. He debated trying it out by himself right then instead of waiting but decided against it. He figured he and his friends should try it all at the same time.

The Discord notification noise suddenly snapped him out of his thoughts. He went to the Discord tab he had opened, seeing that Bad had been the one to text him. He read the text:

**_I just spoke with my friends and they all seemed interested! Should I send them the IP and tell them the time we’ll be recording?_ **

_yeah, go haesd_ Zak texted back.

**_You really need to fix your spelling :/_ **

**_Either way, see you tomorrow!! ^_^_ **

_bye baldy_

Zak smiled at the nickname and closed the Discord tab. _‘I guess all there’s left to do now is wait for tomorrow.’_

[…]

It was the morning of the next day. Zak sat at his desk once again, in a call with his friends. He had Minecraft open on his computer, and his mouse was hovering over the “Join Server” button as he waited for everyone else to get ready.

“Why are you guys taking so long to set it up??” he complained childishly.

“Calm down, Skeppy, I’m almost done!” Bad replied in an exasperated tone.

“I was done three minutes ago, Bad’s the one who is taking time here.” Dream’s voice sounded in the call.

Zak was practically jumping in his chair as he waited for his friends to write down the server IP.

“Okay, I’m ready!” Bad announced.

“Is everyone else ready to try it out?” Zak asked loudly.

Dream, George and Sapnap all replied with a “yep” or an approving hum. Skeppy felt himself grinning.

“Alright, on the count of three, let’s all join the server!” Zak knew how much he sounded like an excited child at the moment, but he didn’t care.

“One!”

“Two!”

“Three!”

The moment Zak pressed the “Join Server” button, he felt a weird, pounding feeling on his head. He pinched his forehead with one hand and screwed up his eyes. A shrill ringing similar to a continuous microwave beep mixed with TV static filled his ears until he couldn’t hear anything but that sound. He tried to speak, but, as though he was mute, no sound came out of his mouth. He then tried to open his eyes, but his vision was blurry and unfocused. He could barely make out the shapes on the game in front of him.

And all of a sudden, Zak felt himself falling as his consciousness slipped away and his vision blurred into darkness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, so that was... certainly a prologue. I think it came out pretty nicely, but I'll let whoever reads this be the judge of that. Can you tell I don't know how Minecraft servers work?? If you can, pretend that I know what I'm doing please
> 
> I apologize if any of the characters are OOC in this, I'm not very good at writing personalities of anything other than my own characters, but I try my best
> 
> Anyways, stay tuned!
> 
> -JY


	3. Chapter One

It was a very quiet night. The only things that could be heard were the occasional squeak of a bat flying in the night sky, the rustling of leaves in the frigid wind and footsteps echoing in the forest. They were slow and heavy; whoever they belonged to was surely not on a rush, just trekking slowly through the forest floor, unconcerned with anything around them.

It had been a while since the being had left its domain. The walks through the nearby forest calmed it down whenever it was feeling annoyed or infuriated at something that had happened during the day. The eerie quiet was satisfying to it, especially in the night, and it could always hunt while it was there so it didn’t have to go on a hunting spree later.

Climbing up a tree, the being gazed absentmindedly at the scenery around it. A huge stone tower stuck out in the distance, surrounded by trees who didn’t even come close to a quarter of its height. Despite how far it was, the being could make out warm amber light coming from inside of the tower. The being smiled cruelly. Soon enough, no one would be warmed by that light.

The being leaped out of the tree to continue its trek, but it was brought to a sudden stop as it noticed a shape almost as big as its own laying on the ground. The being slowly approached the shape to inspect it. It seemed to be a young human; whether he was unconscious or asleep, the being couldn’t tell, but he was certainly, without a doubt, a human.

 _‘So it worked.’_ the being thought, still keeping an eye on the unconscious human. _‘I have not seen a human that looked like this before. It must have.’_

The being kneeled in front of the human, watching him for a moment as if it was assessing him.

 _‘This seems to be my best bet as of now. Certainly there are other humans that know him, and even if they don’t, they’ll probably want to stick together.’_ the being smiled almost malevolently. _‘Humans and their concept of friendship. How foolishly amusing. It will make it all the easier for me to ruin them.’_

The being pulled one of the human’s sleeves up and placed its hand on his forearm. Its hand began glowing a soft but deep purple color, and out of it came dark, rose-like stems which slowly wrapped themselves around the human’s forearm, wriggling and flickering slightly with a purplish glow.

The human stirred. For a second, the being feared that he was waking, but he quickly settled back down as the rose-like stems tightened their grip ever so slightly on his forearm. The being smiled satisfactory, pulling the human’s sleeve back down.

 _‘That should do it.’_ the being closed its eyes. _‘Now, let’s see exactly who you are, human.’_

Then, it dove into the human’s memories. They were basic human things that the being could not understand; memories of a name, of his parents, of friends, and especially memories of playing games with said friends. There were many of those memories, the being noted, and they were filled with such strong feelings of happiness that merely listening to their gleeful laughs made the being sick to the core.

Eventually, the being stopped at a somewhat recent memory. The human was sitting at a desk, watching a screen intently. There were many feelings involved; giddiness, restlessness, excitement, as well as… another foreign feeling. The being couldn’t quite identify it, but it was a warm, positive feeling that nearly overwhelmed the others. And the being did not like it one bit.

Through the human, he listened as a different human stuttered out a phrase. And that phrase, that short, simple phrase, was enough to make the unknown warm feeling in the human’s chest spread until the other emotions were barely felt.

The being had had enough of the human’s memories. Feelings and the weakness that came with them had always disgusted it. It snarled to itself out loud, sticking its tongue out.

_‘Humans are such interesting beings. Why would they waste their time with emotions when they only make them weak? I will never comprehend these creatures…’_

The being slowly picked up the unconscious human as to not wake him up, and began walking out of the forest, taking him with it.

 _‘Nonetheless,’_ the being smirked to itself. _‘I’m going to enjoy having you as my puppet… Clay.’_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Imagine having a first chapter that is shorter than the prologue. This post was made by literally everyone but me
> 
> Anyways, mysterious thing in the woods, what will it do  
> If your guess is "kidnap a man", you are absolutely correct, that is indeed what it will do
> 
> This is a bit of a short one, and I really wanted to make it longer, but the notes I wrote for this chapter didn't give me enough to work with :/ oh well  
> I promise the next one is longer
> 
> -JY


	4. Chapter Two

Zak awoke suddenly with a splash of water in his face. His eyes shot open in surprise as he drew a sharp breath, narrowing just as quickly due to the sudden bright sunlight.

He got to his feet and looked around, slowly adjusting to the sun’s glare. He found himself laying on what seemed to be a riverbank. Tall oak trees rose around him as far as the eye can see, their leaves swishing in the wind. All that Zak could hear in that moment was the rustling of the swishing leaves and the splashing of the river water that splashed on his feet, which would be quite calming if only the circumstances were a bit different.

A simple, obvious thought immediately crossed his mind.

_‘This isn’t my apartment.’_

Zak quickly scrambled onto his feet, trying to prevent himself from panicking. Another thought popped in his head. _‘If I’m here, is everyone else here too? How am I going to find them?’_

He clutched his head, his breathing ragged. _‘No, no. I have to calm down. I have to focus.’_

Zak took another look around. _‘Alright. From what I can tell, I seem to be… inside the server that fan sent me.’_ He fought the urge to let out a crazed laugh. He was in Minecraft. Somehow, in some way, _he was inside the game._

Alas, he could not resist the urge, and in a few seconds he was nearly doubling over, laughing to himself like a patient in an insane asylum. He stopped as his chest started hurting.

“Oh boy, I am… so screwed.” he giggled.

It was only then that he noticed how cold the lower half of his body felt. He looked down and saw small droplets of water dripping down his completely soaked dark gray-blue pants.

“That’s weird… I don’t remember wearing these.” he muttered.

Zak took a quick look at his clothes. Most his clothes were either sky-blue or had blue hues in them. He wore a sky-blue hoodie with what seemed to be a gray t-shirt underneath, and on his neck rested a bandana which seemed to have a goofy smiley drawn on it in black, with a red tongue sticking out.

_‘Oh, that’s neat.’_ he thought. _‘My clothes look like my Minecraft skin.’_

Zak wringed out his pants to get rid of the excess water and sat down on the soft grass, crossing his legs.

“Alrighty,” he thought out loud. “I’m not really fond of dying at the moment, so I need to get supplies. Now what did that video say I should do first…?” he shut his eyes to think for a while, then opened them suddenly as the answer crossed his mind. “Flint! Right! I need flint! And, uh, sticks! For a knife!”

Zak stood up again and looked around for a patch of gravel. He found one on a sandy area of the river surprisingly quickly and made his way toward it. Digging through it, it didn’t take too long for him to find some pieces of flint.

“Have to break it now…” he muttered. He dug out the dirt from the ground next to him until he could see a good amount of stone and threw the flint at it as hard as he could. It split into small shards satisfyingly.

Zak picked up the tiny shards, feeling weirdly proud of himself. _‘Congrats. You did the most basic thing possible in RLCraft. Yay you.’_ his brain mocked him.

Zak ignored it, and instead started walking back towards the oak trees. He batted at the leafy branches that he could reach and a few small sticks fell out. Grabbing the sticks and the flint shards, he expertly mashed them together. He didn’t understand how he knew what to do to keep the flint from falling out of the stick, but he certainly wasn’t complaining. Soon enough, he had two flint knives.

The next thing on his to-do list was finding grass and cutting it for plant fiber, which took no longer than a few seconds of slashing at grass. Unfortunately, “no longer than a few seconds” was also how long one of his flimsy flint knives lasted, breaking and evaporating into particles. Zak didn’t have much time to be annoyed at it, though, because he finally had the materials to make himself a flint hatchet.

Like with the knives, Zak knew what to do from the start, tying the stick and the flint shard together with the string he made from the plant fiber as if he had lived his entire life out in the wild. He wasted no time sprinting to the nearest tree and chopping it down, watching it fall to the opposite direction and split into logs which shrunk to a five times smaller size.

Zak quickly picked all of the tiny logs up, and it suddenly hit him. He didn’t remember how to turn them into planks.

_‘Did I skip that part of the tutorial?’_ he wondered.

He grabbed the bunch of oak logs from his “inventory”. They were represented by a single log hovering in the palm of his hand with the number “6” on the bottom left corner. He placed a log on the ground in front of him and the number in the corner went down to 5. Zak switched to his flint hatchet and looked at the log. _‘Doesn’t it have something to do with the hatchet?’_

A low snarl sounded behind him, snapping him out of his thoughts and making him jump. He tightened his grip on his flint hatchet and whipped his head around to face the sudden noise. The sight made him completely freeze in his tracks out of pure, unfiltered fear.

It wasn’t something one would see in vanilla Minecraft, that’s for sure. The monster was deep red in coloration, and at least one and a half times bigger than Zak. It stood in four arachnid-like legs, but its body was vertical like a Creeper’s, although it looked much creepier, especially under the shade of the trees. It had no visible eyes, and its long, hooked snout opened into a gaping mouth showing hundreds of tiny sharp teeth.

The creature started rushing towards Zak at surprisingly high speeds and Zak barely had enough time to switch into his spare flint knife and swipe at the growling creature. It barely seemed to pierce its thick hide, and before long the knife shattered into particles.

The creature suddenly striked, aiming for Zak’s left arm. It sank its teeth in it and began shaking it viciously. Gritting his teeth and suppressing a scream of pain to the best of his ability, Zak slammed his fist into the creature’s face, loosening its grip on his arm enough for him to yank it out of its mouth. Clutching his wounded arm with his good one, Zak kicked the creature farther from him and quickly backed away, eyes fixed on the creature, until he hit the trunk of a tree. His wound was burning, and he could already feel the blood trickling down his arm.

Only one thought passed through his mind as the creature bared its teeth at him. _‘I’m done for.’_

But then, as if it were a miracle, Zak heard rapid footsteps sounding somewhere around him, so sudden that he almost took his eyes off the monster for a second. The quick footsteps skidded to a stop, and the sound of metal clanking and a slower pair of footsteps replaced it. Before he knew it, there was someone in front of him, fully equipped in iron armor and wielding a sword of the same material. The stranger slashed at the creature, making short work of it. It screeched and collapsed to the ground, dissipating in particles and dropping items Zak could not fully identify.

The stranger bent down to pick up the items, then turned to Zak, and he could now get a good look at his savior. Although it was hard to tell because of the armor, she seemed to be a girl around his age or younger, slightly on the short side, with black hair that he could barely see through the helmet and wide brown eyes. Some areas of her face were slightly smudged with dirt and grit, but he could still tell her skin was naturally pale.

“Are you okay?” she asked, voice brimming with genuine worry.

Zak stared dazedly at his wounded arm. “I’m… alive, I guess.” he hummed. “Thanks to you.”

The girl’s eyes followed Zak’s own, widening once they reached his arm. “Y-your arm!” she squeaked, rummaging on her pockets. “That Alpha did a number on you. Let me help a bit with that.”

She pulled out what looked like a piece of bandage. “That’s really weird. Jousts usually spawn in the desert, and the nearest desert’s quite a few blocks away. That Alpha wasn’t supposed to be anywhere near here…” the girl rambled on as she wrapped the bandage tightly around Zak’s bleeding arm, making him wince with the pain. She ripped the excess bandage with her teeth and tied the loose ends neatly into a bow.

“Alright, this isn’t much, but it’ll at least stop the bleeding until I can get you better medicine.” she sighed, seemingly half to herself. She looked back at Zak as if she remembered something. “Oh, sorry, I forgot to introduce myself. I’m Sally, and over there’s Lazuli, my Ventoraptor.”

Only now had Zak noticed the dark blue raptor-like creature standing behind Sally, sitting somewhat rigidly in the shade of a tree and staring directly at them with gleaming yellow eyes.

“Don’t worry about him. He looks all grumpy but I promise he’s not mean!” Sally smiled brightly at him. For some reason, her smile reminded him of his friend, BadBoyHalo, which only made him miss his friends more.

“So what’s your name?”

Lost in thought, Zak hadn’t even realized that Sally asked him a question. She was now looking expectantly at him.

“I’m…” Zak hesitated. Should he really give out his name to a stranger? “Skeppy. You can call me Skeppy.” he finished.

Sally flashed him a weird look. “Is that a nickname? Alright, I’ll call you Skeppy!” she smiled once again.

Suddenly, Zak remembered that his friends were probably out there too, and Sally could know something about it.

“Hey, quick question, have you seen any other people around here?” he asked the armored girl. “I’m pretty sure my friends are somewhere around here.”

Sally stared at him, wide-eyed, concern and surprise showing in her gaze. “Th-there’s more people??” she stuttered out, her voice shaking with surprise.

“So you don’t know anything, huh?”

“No!” she flailed her arms helplessly. “I didn’t even know there were any other humans here before finding you, much less more than one!” Sally looked up to him pleadingly. “How many more are there…?”

“As far as I know, there’s at least four more.” Zak told her. This only seemed to make her more upset.

“Oh, that’s a problem, that’s a big problem, more people in danger means…” she trailed off, pacing back and forth. Zak frowned at her. She turned her head back to him, frowning back at him. “How did you and your friends even _get_ here?!”

_‘I could ask you the same myself!’_ Zak nearly replied, but all of the emotions he had suppressed ever since he awoke got the better of him, and he instead said, “Hell if I know! Last thing I remember, me and my friends were about to play Minecraft and I got a headache, and suddenly I’m in a forest in the middle of fuck all _nowhere_!”

Zak wasn’t certain, but he was almost sure that Sally’s expression flashed with guilt for a split second.

Just as quickly, her expression had turned back to worry as she sighed weakly. “Don’t worry, Skeppy, I’ll help you find your friends, but we have to take care of one problem at a time,” she glanced at his bandaged arm. “and the current problem is that wound on your arm. It could get really bad if I don’t treat it. No one wants a nasty infected wound.” she paced hurriedly over to her Ventoraptor and hopped onto him, beckoning Zak. “Come with me. I have to take you to my base to get that cleaned up.”

_‘Base?’_ Once again, Zak hesitated. Should he really trust this girl that he just met? She had saved him, sure, but what if it was all a ruse? He could never be sure of her intentions, even if they seemed good.

But the throbbing pain he felt in his left arm made him make up his mind, and he, too, hopped on as Sally guided Lazuli through the trees.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Told you this one would be longer
> 
> When you suddenly wake up in a forest in the middle of nowhere, what do you do? You laugh hysterically as you realize you're fucked, logically  
> Anyways, I would like to formally introduce you to one of the three OCs in this story: Sally! She's a very empathetic and sweet girl with a knack for healing and medicine, and not only does she have a whole ass raptor mount but she also apparently has her own base, ooh, mysterious
> 
> Stay tuned!
> 
> -JY


	5. Chapter Three

Lazuli skidded to a stop in front of a tall stone brick wall. In front of them there were oak logs in the form of a big, wooden door. Zak and Sally hopped off, the former slightly dazed due to the speed they had been going at. He looked at Sally as she fumbled with some buttons on the wall.

“Where are we?” he asked.

“I like to call this the Gate.” Sally told him, looking proud. “Me and my brother built it to keep mobs out of the base.”

 _‘She’s not alone?’_ Zak wasn’t entirely surprised by this turn of events. “You’re not the only one here?”

“Nope!” Sally chirped. “My brother and our friend are here too.”

Zak leaned over to look at what she was doing. She was still pressing buttons in the Gate. At last, she stopped, placing her hands on her hips, but nothing happened. Her shoulders slumped visibly.

“Darn.” she muttered. “Sorry. I always forget the code.”

She began pressing the buttons again, in a slightly different order than before, her face scrunched up in concentration. Suddenly, the oak logs parted to the side slightly, making an opening in the wall wide enough for the two of them to cross at once. Zak stumbled backwards, taken by surprise.

“You can do redstone button combinations?” he asked, surprise evident in his voice. He wasn’t expecting Sally to be so advanced into the game.

“Oh, no, I could never do this! It’s too complicated for me!” she told him with a giggle. “That was my friend. She’s really smart.”

Sally walked through the Gate, Lazuli’s reins in her hand. Zak followed, and as soon as he was inside Sally pressed a button and the hole in the oak logs shut once again.

Zak looked at his surroundings. Inside the wide area blocked out by the Gate were a variety of different things, but what stood out was the stone tower right in front of him, which stretched up into the sky, with a reddish-brown ceiling that, Zak assumed, was made of bricks.

A cave entrance cutely decorated with stone and vines stood to the left of the Tower, the amber light of torches shining from inside. Next to the cave there was a little farm, with cows, pigs, sheep and chickens all separated by species, making quite a lot of noise in their enclosures.

To the right of the Tower there was a big wood and cobblestone structure labeled “MOUNTS”, which was connected to the tower by a cobblestone tunnel, and next to it stood a Netherrack and Nether brick structure, almost completely blocked off. _‘They must have a Nether portal there.’_

There were also statues of varying sizes scattered around in the empty space inside the Gate, some simple, some intricate, but all quite pleasant to look at.

Zak walked up to Sally. “What’s that all about?” he pointed at the statues.

“For decoration?” she told him, with a look as though it was obvious. She pulled on the sleeve of his hoodie. “Come on in!”

Sally pushed one of the two wooden doors open, making it creak quite loudly.

“Kevin, I’m back!” she yelled, taking off her helmet. Zak could now see that her black hair bobbed at the tips. “Could you come down for a bit? I brought a guest!”

“A _guest_? Ooh, now you got my attention!” a surprised faraway voice replied. _‘Kevin must be her brother.’_ “Be there in a sec, Sal!”

Zak was still looking around at the Tower. “Did you build this?”

“Actually, no.” Sally told him, taking off the rest of her armor. “It was a randomly generated structure in this game. We kinda just took over it.”

Zak could hear someone thundering down the stairs in front of them. He seemed only slightly taller than Sally, but, unlike her, he had blonde, spiky hair and blue eyes. Zak was sure this was Kevin.

“Hello, dear sister!” he turned to Zak. He didn’t seem as surprised as Sally had been to see another human. “And who might you be?”

“He goes by Skeppy.” Sally told him. He tilted his head to the side in confusion but said nothing. “What were you up to?”

“Just sharpening and fixing Porcus’s sword.” Kevin told her. “He’s been a bit grumpy lately, and I figured it’s because of that.”

“Who’s Porcus?” Zak asked.

“Oh, he’s just a Zombie Pigman that lives with us. He stumbled in here from our Nether portal and decided to stay. He’s a bit scary-looking, but he’s no threat.” Sally explained distractedly. She turned to Kevin. “Could you get me the usual medicine for wounds, please?”

“Aye-aye, doc!” Kevin saluted her. He walked over to a chest with the label “MEDICINE” above it and took out some rolled bandages and two bottles, one filled with water and the other filled with a pinkish liquid.

Sally beckoned Zak over to what looked like a chair, telling him to sit down, and he obliged.

“What’s that?” he asked, looking at the pinkish bottle as Kevin passed it over to Sally.

“Splash potion of regeneration.” Sally told him matter-of-factly. “It’ll help with healing considerably.”

She grabbed Zak’s left sleeve and pulled it up. The previous bandage was red and sticky with dried blood.

Zak winced as Sally slowly removed his bandage. The wound was still fleshy and burning, but it wasn’t bleeding profusely anymore, only slightly oozing coagulated blood which dripped agonizingly slowly down his arm.

“That’s not as bad as I’d expected.” she murmured. Zak wondered what she “expected”.

Sally poured some of the water onto a bit of the bandage and dabbed it at the edges of the wound, cleaning it carefully. It stung, but Zak had expected worse.

He tried to make conversation. “So… Where’s this third person that lives with you?”

“Oh, I haven’t seen her in two days or so.” Sally replied, focused on cleaning the wound.

“Huh? You mean she just… left two days ago?”

“Oh, yeah, she does that a lot.” Sally was now holding the regeneration potion over his wound, dripping a few droplets onto it, which made Zak hiss quietly with pain. “Without warning, too. And when she comes back she always brings a bunch of rare materials with her. God knows where she finds them.”

Suddenly, the front doors were thrown open, ricocheting off the wall slightly. In came a tall figure, fully armored with iron armor like Sally had been, although their armor was visibly more worn out than Sally’s. They wore a ragged brown backpack on their back, so full that it seemed like it could burst at any moment.

They took out their helmet and Zak could now see that they were a girl with medium length, uneven and unkempt dark brown hair. Her eyes flitted over towards Sally and Kevin for a split second, then she went back to taking off her amor.

“I’m back.” she mumbled nonchalantly.

“Welcome back, Jesse!” Sally greeted the taller girl. “What did you find this time?”

“Nothing much. It was kind of disappointing. Although I did find a fire dragon corpse on the way back, and I got some scales, bones and blood...” she trailed off, rummaging on her battered backpack. Zak was sure she hadn’t even noticed him. Either that or she didn’t care that he was there. “So I guess it wasn’t all so bad.”

Jesse took off the dark gray coat she was wearing and tossed it next to the armor. Under it she wore a light gray T-shirt. Or at least Zak though it was light gray; it was so dirty and stained that he couldn’t tell for sure. She had bloodstained bandages around both her arms, and a small, but nasty cut on her right leg oozed blood.

“Man, I need a bath.” she muttered to no one in particular. “AND a haircut. It’s starting to get too long again.”

Jesse finally looked up. Her brown eyes were dull and tired. Anyone could see the bags that formed under them.

“Anyways,” she looked around indifferently. “What have you two been up t-”

Jesse froze mid-sentence, visibly tensing up. Her aloof gaze hardened into a look of pure mistrust, her eyes boring directly into Zak’s and her brows furrowed. Zak froze under her glare. If he was being honest, it was quite intimidating.

“Sally,” she turned to the shorter girl, surprise and defensiveness evident in her tone. “who the _fuck_ is this?”

Sally fidgeted in her seat.

“H-he’s wounded, Jesse, I was just healing him.” she justified herself. It seemed that Jesse’s glare also intimidated her.

Jesse stayed in silence for a few seconds, her glare only slightly softening, then hummed.

“Alright.” Jesse shrugged, tossing her backpack over her shoulder. “Patch him up and then he can go on his merry way.”

“What?” Sally asked. Jesse, who was already walking away, tilted her head to look at her. “I’m not leaving him out there by himself!”

“Why not?” Jesse looked annoyed. “I’m sure he can manage.”

“Why _not_?” Sally repeated incredulously, seeming to choke back a shocked laugh. “Have you forgotten where we are? You _know_ this mod is ruthless, Jesse!”

Jesse dropped her backpack on what looked like a counter carelessly and fully turned towards them. “And how is this our problem, exactly?”

Sally didn’t immediately reply, looking at Jesse with an emotion Zak couldn’t quite identify. She narrowed her eyes, tying the bandage around Zak’s arm and tugged his unharmed arm, prompting him to get up.

“Skeppy, go and rest in the living room, okay?” she told him sweetly.

Zak walked over to the room next to the entrance, shutting the door behind him. He didn’t want to pry, but he was curious to see where the conversation would lead, so he laid on the wall next to the door and just listened. He couldn’t make out anything at first, only calm murmurs from Sally and surprised mutters from Jesse. Kevin seemed to be quiet. Eventually, they spoke loudly enough for him to hear.

“We don’t need dead weight holding us back, Sally. We’re fine how we are.” Jesse’s voice was low.

“Jesse, he’ll die if we just… _leave_ him out there!” Sally’s worry-stricken voice came right after Jesse’s.

Jesse stayed quiet for a while. “You don’t know for sure that he’ll die. He might find his friends eventually. Or not. It’s not my problem.”

“Jesse, just because you don’t know him doesn’t mean you have to act so… _cold_.” Sally pressed.

“Just because you’re empathetic doesn’t mean you have to bring every injured stranger into our base.” Jesse retorted.

“You act like we’ve been in a situation as serious as this before-”

“You two!” Kevin’s voice sounded suddenly. “Calm down!”

The room went silent. Zak assumed the two girls had looked at Kevin.

“I understand that you don’t trust people easily, Jesse, but you can’t just leave him to _die_!” Kevin spoke again.

Jesse didn’t immediately reply. “… Fine. Do as you must. But if he betrays us, it’s off with his head. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

Even though he wasn’t planning to betray them, Zak’s breath hitched in his throat at the threat.

Kevin snorted. “You expect _everyone_ to betray you, Jesse.”

“So we all agree that he’ll stay?” Sally broke in. “At least until we find his friends?”

Jesse grunted. “If he must.”

Sally sighed. “Thank you, Jesse. I know it’s hard for you to trust. If this was a normal situation, I’d respect your decision, but this is _far_ from a normal situation, and you know that.”

“I know. I’m… sorry for lashing out.” Jesse mumbled. “I’ll try to be more… welcoming.” Zak felt a twinge of sympathy towards her.

He heard someone heading towards the door and hurried over to a makeshift couch, pretending to be innocent. Sally’s head popped through the door.

“Skeppy?” she called. “It’s a bit late. You should stay here for the night.”

Zak nodded wordlessly, following her up the stairs into a room with a few red beds. He suddenly realized how tired he felt. His body was aching for a good night’s sleep.

“See you tomorrow!” Sally told him cheerfully, walking out of the room. She peeked back in suddenly. “Oh, and also, expect to be woken up early! We’re early risers in here.”

Zak barely heard her. He collapsed onto the bed, his body almost immediately relaxing into the soft fabric. Before he knew it, he was asleep.

[...]

“Up and at ‘em! It’s time to wake up, guest!” a singsong voice taunted him.

Zak groaned, shifting in the bed. Eventually, he reluctantly opened his eyes, rubbing the sleep off them, and got up to his feet, stumbling slightly.

 _‘How early even is it?’_ He glanced at the window. The sun was barely rising.

Nearly tripping over himself, he made his way down the stairs, to what they used as a kitchen. Immediately the smell of freshly baked bread filled his nostrils, and, remembering his hunger, he was suddenly more awake.

“There you are!” Kevin greeted him excitedly as soon as he walked in. He was holding what looked like a basket full of bread. “Skeppy, right? I made bread!”

“You didn’t make that, I did.” Sally giggled. “Dummy.”

“Okay, no need to expose me in front of our guest, Sal!” Kevin joked, grinning.

Jesse also hummed amusedly. Zak had barely even noticed that she was there. She was sitting quietly on the other side of the makeshift table, scribbling away in a book nonstop, sometimes munching on her piece of bread.

Grabbing a piece of bread for himself from Kevin’s basket, Zak sat down to eat. He suddenly thought of his friends again. How were they? Were they okay? And how far from here could they be? Hopefully not too far.

Despite being so absorbed in her writing, Jesse seemed to be able to tell how grim he looked, because she looked over at him with what Zak assumed was a pitiful look and suddenly closed her book, shoved it into her jacket’s pocket and got up to her feet.

“Skeppy, if that’s your name,” she mumbled. “you… probably miss your friends, don’t you?”

Zak nodded affirmatively. There was no point in pretending he wasn’t worried for their safety.

“Let’s go look for them.” she told him suddenly, catching him off guard. “We’ll go to where you spawned, and then we’ll circle around to see if we find anything.”

Zak felt his spirits lift. He was finally going to search for his friends!

“Hey, Kevin,” Jesse called over her shoulder as she put on her battered armor. “can I borrow Char for a bit?”

“‘Course!” Kevin continued what he was doing, not even glancing in her direction.

“Stay safe!” Sally called after the two of them.

Jesse walked to the entrance, Zak following behind. She pulled a stone sword and a stone axe from a chest labelled “WEAPONS” and tossed them to him.

“Take those in case we run into trouble.” she opened both doors and Zak followed her out, fumbling with the weapons.

Jesse whistled at the sky, and suddenly a bright orange, bird-like creature flew down from it, roosting right next to Jesse.

“This is Char.” she introduced the creature, petting it with a small smile. “He’s Kevin’s Roc.”

When the creature leaned in to look at him, Zak had to muster all of his strength not to step back. The memory of the creature that attacked him in the forest was still fresh in his mind.

“Don’t worry, he’s tame.” Jesse climbed onto Char’s back. “C’mon, get on. You’re not going around to search for your friends on foot.”

Somewhat reluctantly, Zak climbed onto the huge creature. Char spread his enormous wings and suddenly lifted off into the sky, while Zak tried his hardest not to scream in fear and exhilaration at suddenly flying over the oak trees that had seemed so tall when he was on the ground.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Back to Diamond Man we go, and he finally meets the rest of the "stuck in RLCraft" crew! Kevin, a dorky guy who really likes swords and baking for some reason, and Jesse, a badass and apathetic woman who is always tired and probably has trust issues
> 
> Next chapter we'll take a look at how BBH is doing, I promise this isn't all just Skeppy POVs
> 
> -JY


	6. Chapter Four

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I should note that this chapter happens at around the same time as Chapter Two

Darryl’s eyes snapped open as he drew in a sharp, sudden breath, pushing himself off the ground and into a crawl position. He was a bit dazed at first, gazing emptily at the grassy ground underneath him.

His breathing turned erratic as he realized he didn’t recognize the place where he was. He noticed he was standing right underneath what seemed like a spruce tree. Overgrown ferns of a dull green color rubbed against his arms with the chilly air of the spruce forest. Darryl shook them off and got to his feet, shaking dirt off his clothes with his hands. He was wearing mostly black and red, just like his Minecraft skin. A long, hooded cloak on his shoulders, red-bordered black robes, thick, dark brown gloves on his hands, dark gray boots, and on his neck a checkered bandana with various monochromatic hues. Darryl pulled the hood of the cloak up to his head. It made him feel safer for some reason.

Trying to calm his breathing, Darryl took another look around.

 _‘Where am I?’_ was the first thought that popped into his mind, quickly followed by _‘And where is everyone else?’_

Darryl began feeling anxious quite quickly. What if his friends were hurt? What if they had already met their end? And what if… they were somewhere nearby?

And so he began calling. For Skeppy. Dream. George. Sapnap. Any and all of them.

He knew he should focus on getting tools first. He knew he should try to get resources as soon as he could before nighttime. But in the heat of the moment, the little anxious voice in his head hadn’t yet lost hope that his friends were somewhere around him.

As he had just yelled out his friends’ names a fourth time, his voice strained and hurting, he heard nothing but the echo of his own calls and the wind rustling the trees. And it was then that he had to face the harsh truth; no one was coming. He was alone, lost in a foreign place, with nowhere to go.

Darryl slowly sat down under the shade of a tree, hugging his knees close to his chest, trying to control his breathing.

 _‘It’s fine.’_ he thought to himself. _‘They’re okay, and I’ll find them soon. Things will… get better…’_

His thoughts died out as he realized that not even he himself believed that. At that moment, nothing seemed “fine” or “okay”. He didn’t know where he was. He didn’t know what was lurking around, ready to shred him to pieces as soon as it saw him… And neither did his friends.

And that was why he made the final decision to find his friends, no matter what, or die trying.

He got up suddenly with a huff, looking at his surroundings. He had spent the previous night learning the basics of the mod and other useful tips. He walked around, keeping watch for any creatures and listening for rushing water, until he finally heard a river up ahead and sprinted towards it, digging for flint. He sped through the next steps; making flint knives, cutting plant fiber for plant string, making a hatchet and chopping down the nearest spruce tree, which split into logs once it hit the ground.

Darryl grabbed the logs and quickly turned them into planks. Now he could do basic Minecraft things; building a crafting table and wooden tools. He stared at the wooden pickaxe for a bit. Could such a flimsy-looking piece of wood really mine stone? _‘I guess I’ll have to find out.’_

He knelt on the ground and began digging until he was met with cold, gray stone. Then, he pulled out the pickaxe and started mining it, surprised when it split into tiny pieces of stone.

He scooped up four pieces into his hands, and like magic they merged into a not very solid-looking block of cobblestone. Darryl frowned. It would be quite annoying if he had to do that every time he wanted cobblestone.

Nonetheless, he continued to mine stone until his tired arms were begging him for a break. Climbing out of the hole he had made, he walked back to where his crafting table stood and made stone tools.

He had been so absorbed in what he was doing that he didn’t notice that the sun was setting, the sky filling up with warm amber colors.

 _‘Already?’_ He wondered. His heart rate sped up as he thought of how many new and foreign mobs the nighttime could bring. _‘I should build a house before anything comes after me.’_

Spruce planks in hand, Darryl mapped out a small square, about seven by five blocks, in the even ground in front of him, leaving an opening an entrance. He finished building it surprisingly quickly, the sun having barely set when he was done. He stopped to admire his work when a sudden rustle in the trees snapped him out of his trance.

 _‘What was that??’_ Darryl thought fearfully, his heart threatening to beat out of his chest. He tried to look around for whatever or whoever caused the sound, but at that point there was barely any sunlight left and the sky was quickly darkening. Despite that, though, Darryl could still make out a shape moving in the back, almost as tall as the trees next to it.

He slowly backed away towards his house, blocking off the hole he had previously left for a door once he was inside. Instead of being met with total darkness as he had expected, he was greeted by a warm, pale yellow light that hovered above him. Darryl looked up to see that the source of light was a ring that resembled a halo floating above his head. To be completely honest, he hadn’t noticed that halo before at all.

The light was pleasantly bright, but not so bright that he couldn’t look directly at it. For the first time in a while, Darryl pulled his hood back down, sighing, and sat on the wooden ground of his house, staring at the halo. It was like it was calming him somehow.

“I wonder… if the others are alright…” he hummed out loud, leaning against the wall. Being made of wood, it wasn’t exactly comfortable, but it could have been worse.

 _‘It could have been worse…’_ he repeated to himself. It was then that he realized how lucky he had been during that day. If any monster had appeared near him before he had gotten tools, there was no way he would have made it out in this world. He silently thanked the lord above. For now, he was safe. He could relax.

Darryl could already feel his eyelids getting heavy with sleep. His halo’s light dimmed as if it knew that he was going to fall asleep.

_‘I hope everyone else is okay.’_

He closed his eyes and, despite the circumstances, almost instantly drifted off to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> POV change! Time to see how good old BadBoyHalo is doing. Spoiler: not very well
> 
> Oh well, at least things will get better maybe hopefully... right?
> 
> -JY


	7. Chapter Five

Darryl slowly opened his eyes sleepily, stretching in the small space he had fallen asleep in to the best of his ability. He woke up feeling so at peace that he had almost forgotten that he was in the house he himself built in the middle of a spruce forest. He pushed the glasses that were close to sliding off his face up and got to his feet. The halo above his head glowed gloomily, the pale yellow light enough to light up the tiny wood shack despite being so dim.

 _‘I must’ve fallen asleep when I barricaded here.’_ he thought.

His stomach began growling, and he realized he had no idea when was the last time he had anything to eat. _‘Or drink, for that matter.’_ he added, feeling his throat nearly completely dry. _‘My throat is drier than a desert.’_

He knew that he had to go outside to at least drink. It mustn’t be pleasant to die of thirst. But before he left, he had to make sure he was prepared.

He took a look at his “inventory”. He had eight spruce planks, a flint hatchet, a flint knife, stone and wooden tools.

Darryl started to open a hole in the wood shack with his stone axe. The second he opened a hole into the outside, he was immediately greeted by a rush of chilly morning wind coming from outside. He shivered involuntarily at the sudden cold.

There were no creatures around, and all he heard was the cold wind rushing past his ears. He slowly made his way out of his makeshift house and walked through the forest, looking for food. To his surprise, he found a group of pigs before long. For a moment, he was excited, until he realized that he had to kill at least one of them for food. He gulped, gripping his stone sword tightly. Usually he’d do this with no problem, but the thought of killing a realistic-looking animal made him feel slightly queasy.

Nonetheless, he strutted forward, holding the sword in front of him. He swiped at the nearest pig and it squeaked in alarm, alerting the others and prompting them to run away. Not stopping to think about the morality of his actions, Darryl chased after the pig he hit and struck it down, making it disappear in a puff of smoke and drop a single piece of meat. Disappointed, Darryl looked around, but the other pigs were nowhere to be found.

He sighed, but the sigh quickly turned into a cough when the air collided with his dry throat. He picked up the piece of meat between coughs and tried to remember where he had seen the river that he got flint from. It didn’t take him long to reach it, and once he did he bent down and cupped water with his hands to drink it. The water had a weird tang that stuck to his tongue, but he ignored it. He was just glad his throat wasn’t dry anymore.

Determined to continue his quest of finding the others, he started walking towards an area of the forest he didn’t recognize. The sudden sound of beating wings coming from above him made him stop in his tracks He risked a glance up and saw a weird gray creature, half eagle, half horse, flying overhead. He didn’t know what it was, but it looked dangerous, so he slid over to the nearest tree for cover and waited for it to leave. He heard the creature land farther from him and held his breath, shifting so that he was standing on the opposite side of where he heard the creature land.

As Darryl anxiously waited for the creature to leave, he briefly wondered about his current situation. He had somehow been transported inside Minecraft, but why? How? And who could even do something like this? It all felt like a bad dream.

He slowly peeked from behind the tree to see if the creature was nearby. The creature was nowhere to be seen, and the chirps he had heard it make before weren’t there anymore. Keeping his guard up, he walked out of his hiding spot and into the forest.

Before long, the dark logs of spruce trees were replaced by oak logs of a lighter shade. He must have entered a different forest. As he walked through the oak forest, it was like the chilly wind from the spruce forest had suddenly softened into a pleasant breeze. It was weird, but he wasn’t going to complain.

Not looking at where he was going, he suddenly bumped into something, nearly falling over. He looked down and saw a single oak log on the ground.

 _‘That’s… peculiar.’_ He thought. _‘Why is there only one log here?’_

He bent down to look closer at it and gasped. On the log there were specks of dried blood, small but visible. All the calm that Darryl had worked hard to build shattered at that moment.

“Blood…?” he whispered out loud. “Does that…?”

He looked around in a frenzy for any more traces of blood. Sure enough, there was a trail on the ground, leading over to a tree with a big splatter of dried blood in its trunk. He rushed over to the tree and looked around. There were no other blood trails around. The blood stopped there.

“Oh no…” he mumbled, staring at the bloodied tree. “What if…?”

Darryl could feel himself getting increasingly worried every second that passed. He was about to scout the area in case there were more blood trails, but the sudden sounds of footsteps and voices made him stop in his tracks.

“Are you sure it’s here?” he heard an aloof voice that he didn’t recognize ask.

“Of course I’m sure!” another squeaky voice replied. “This is where Sally found me!”

Darryl’s breath caught in his throat. He had heard that high-pitched whining more times than he could count. His heart sped up in relief as he ran towards where he heard the voices. He soon saw two figures, one of which he didn’t recognize, but the other was extremely familiar to him.

“Skeppy!”

Skeppy turned towards him, his eyes widening in shock. He seemed to be too shocked to even move. Darryl took the initiative and sprinted towards him, engulfing him in a tight hug that made the other grunt.

“Oh, I’m so glad you’re okay, muffin!” he breathed, not wanting to let go of his friend. “I saw blood back there and I got so worried-”

“Bad-” Skeppy yelped, but Bad didn’t hear him.

“I thought you were dead, or something-”

“ _Bad_.” Skeppy repeated through gritted teeth. “My arm- please let go- it hurts-”

Darryl gasped, immediately releasing his friend from the hug. “Are you hurt?”

“Yeah.” Skeppy mumbled, massaging his arm. “But I’m alright now. Someone found me before things got worse.”

“You should have been more careful, Skeppy.” Darryl reprimanded him. “But I’m glad you’re alright now.”

Out of nowhere, Skeppy threw his arms around Darryl, in a weaker but just as heartfelt hug as the one Darryl had given him.

“I’m glad you’re okay too, Darryl.” he whispered softly.

The two of them suddenly heard someone clear their throat. Darryl and Skeppy looked back at the person that had been with Skeppy. Frankly, Darryl had almost forgotten she was there.

“Sorry, Jesse.” Skeppy mumbled apologetically, letting go of Darryl and turning to face the stranger. “This is Bad. He’s one of my friends. Bad, this is Jesse. She’s friends with the person who saved me.”

“Hi.” Jesse said curtly, seemingly not very interested. “Seems that this outing wasn’t as unsuccessful as I’d predicted.” she turned to Skeppy. “We found one of your friends already.”

“More like _he_ found _us_.” Skeppy giggled.

“Maybe it’s time we go back.” Jesse added, walking away. “Your friend must be hungry.”

“Yeah! Let’s go back!” Skeppy tugged on Darryl’s arm as if he were an excited child. “Man, you will not _believe_ what happened to me, Bad!”

Jesse and Skeppy climbed onto a big, orange bird-like creature, Skeppy urging him to get on. Although slightly uncertain, Darryl climbed onto the creature, which flapped its wings and flew into the sky. Skeppy started rambling about what had happened to him.

Darryl smiled as he listened to his friend ramble. He was sure Skeppy would have a good story to tell him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one took an incredibly long amount of time to write because it was just. So. BORING. I had to stop every five or so minutes because I was bored out of my mind writing it.  
> Similarly, the beginning's kinda boring, sorry about that, but I think the end sorta compensates for it hopefully
> 
> I love portraying strong friendships in my works. Actually, I love portraying any kind of relationship, romantic or otherwise. It makes me feel soft. And what's Skeppy's and BBH's relationship, you may wonder? That's up to you ;)
> 
> Anyways next chapter will mix the POVs up a bit, since we're done with Skeppy and BBH for now. Stay tuned!
> 
> -JY


	8. Chpater Six

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This also happens at around the same time as Chapters Two and Four.

When George finally regained consciousness, he felt as though his skin was freezing over. It was no surprise that when he opened his eyes, he found himself laying on his stomach in about four inches of snow, glistening in the bright, but not warm, sunlight, shivering with the cold.

He got to his feet, brushing flakes of snow off his clothes. _‘Why am I laying in snow?’_ he glanced at his clothes. He was wearing a blue t-shirt and gray pants. On the ground, he saw a pair of sunglasses that resembled his Minecraft skin’s. He picked them up and rested them on his head. _‘And why am I wearing a_ t-shirt _on_ snow _?’_

Squinting because of the strong winds, he looked around. The ground was covered in a layer of snow, and there were no trees around. Off in the distance, all that he saw were two mountains stretching high up over the clouds, and a strange, brownish tower-like structure. He looked down at his feet. Sweeping the snow on the ground in front of him away with his foot, he was met with hard, gray stone.

 _‘Am… am I in the game?’_ George fought the urge to let out a small, nervous giggle. _‘How…?’_

He didn’t even want to think about how impossible the situation he was in was. All that mattered at the moment was finding the others. They were playing in the same server, so surely they’d be nearby?

He briefly wondered if they were alright. Dream was probably fine, George assumed, he was not only good at the game but also a quick thinker. Bad was careful and thoughtful, he wouldn’t get hurt easily. And, despite the disagreements the two often had, George was also worried for Sapnap, since he could be reckless and cocky at times. _‘That idiot better not get himself killed before I can even find him.’_

By now, the cold was starting to get to him. His teeth were beginning to chatter, and he was almost sure he couldn’t feel his hands or feet.

 _‘I have to walk somewhere warm.’_ he thought. Dying of hypothermia was surely not a pleasant sensation.

He suddenly remembered the weird tower he had seen when he was looking around. ‘There might be loot in there. I should check it out.’

Hugging himself, he rushed in the direction of the tower, narrowing his eyes when the cold wind of the mountain hit his face, snow crunching loudly beneath his feet. In just a few minutes of running, he found a birch forest biome, the dull yellow grass and leaves wavering in the wind. Now all he had to do was find flint.

Luckily, a nearby riverbank provided him just that. Doing the basics of breaking the flint into shards, shaking sticks from trees and cutting plant fiber to make plant string, he soon got himself a flint hatchet, and within seconds a tree was falling down, branches crushing as it hit the ground. George picked up the logs and turned only half of them into planks. He might need the logs for something later.

He looked around to find the brownish tower. It was much closer now, but he still had a ways to go before getting to it.

Before he set off, he stopped to make a crafting table and two wooden swords. After all, there were probably monsters inside the tower.

He stared at the sword. It didn’t exactly look _deadly_ , but it was probably better than the flimsy flint knives he had been using prior.

He heard a sudden moo and turned towards the sound. A lone cow was peacefully grazing nearby, under the shade of a birch tree. George stared at it. He wasn’t particularly hungry, but what if he got hungry later and couldn’t find any food? He might as well kill the cow.

Sword in hand, he stalked towards it, swiping when he was in its range. It let out a fearful moo and attempted to run away, which George didn’t expect. But after a few slices of the surprisingly decent wooden sword, the cow dropped to the ground, dissipating into particles and dropping two pieces of beef.

Picking the beef up, George bit down on one of the pieces. It was juicy, but it didn’t taste like anything. If he was being honest, he felt slightly bad for killing the cow. Even if I wasn’t real, it was just minding its business.

He decided not to dwell on it and just focus on reaching the tower. After a while, peeking through the trees, he found the entrance of the tower. Tightening his grip on the wooden sword, George gulped and walked in slowly, eyes darting around in case something jumped out at him.

The first floor was no big challenge. There were a few Zombies around, but he quickly and carefully fought them off, going up a floor before more could spawn. The second floor was a bit harder; there were more Zombies than in the first floor, and George had to swipe them away and run before they caught up to him. Despite getting a bit scratched, he got to the stairs.

As he was climbing up to the third floor, he heard a sudden, quite familiar screech of fear and pain that caught him so off guard that he nearly fell back.

Immediately, he rushed over to the third floor. A group of snarling Zombies was crowding around someone who was punching desperately at them.

“Get away!”

That fearful yell was unmistakable. As he got closer, through the corner of his eye, George saw his friend, battered and bruised, blood splattered in both his face and his white shirt.

_‘Sapnap!’_

George sprinted towards the Zombies, slashing at them and driving them away from his friend. He heard Sapnap’s breath hitch in his throat once he noticed George, but George didn’t pay attention to him; he was more focused in driving the Zombies away before Sapnap got more wounded.

He tossed him his spare wooden sword, watching him fumble with it before gripping the handle and beginning to strike the Zombies along with George. Their efforts made short work of the Zombies, who disappeared in a puff of smoke, dropping rotten flesh and a few glowing yellowish orbs, which gravitated towards George and Sapnap and disappeared.

For a while, neither of them spoke. They just stood in silence, panting breathlessly, staring at each other.

Finally, Sapnap broke the silence.

“I didn’t need your help.” he muttered between breaths.

“Sure.” George teased with a huff. He glanced at the Texan’s bloodstained shirt. “And that on your shirt is strawberry jam, right?”

Sapnap snorted. “I might have gotten a bit beaten up, but I had the situation under control.”

“Yeah.” George said, sarcasm dripping from his voice. “I’m sure those five Zombies were no match for your two beaten up fists.”

“For your information, I had flint knives with me.” Sapnap said, taking his white headband off and tying it around his forearm, wincing slightly.

“Oh, yeah?” George shot him a smug look. “And where are they now?”

“They, uh, they broke.” he admitted embarrassedly.

“Just admit it, you’d be done for if it wasn’t for me.” George might not have shown it, but he was quite concerned; Sapnap was massaging his bandaged forearm with a pained look on his face.

“Fine. Whatever.” Sapnap grumbled. Despite his tone, he shot him a playful glance. “Thanks, George.”

George ruffled his hair, smirking playfully back at him. “My pleasure, Snapmap.”

“Call me that again and we’re gonna have issues.”

George looked at his friend. The headband he had wrapped around his forearm was already getting bloody. He was in no state to fight his way up the tower.

 _‘Sapnap’s life is more important than some loot.’_ he thought. _‘We have to leave, or he might get fatally injured.’_

George looked at himself. He only had a few scratches on his arms, and although they stung, they were nothing compared to Sapnap’s wounds.

“Alright, now that I have rescued the damsel in distress, we better leave.”

“What?” Sapnap looked at him, brows furrowed. “I came here for loot. I’m _getting_ the loot.”

“Sapnap, you’re incredibly injured.” George looked at the headband wrapped around the younger’s arm. “I’m not risking you getting more hurt than you already are.”

“Aww, you care about me, Georgie?” Sapnap cooed, a sickly sweet smile forming on his lips.

“I thought that much was obvious, idiot.” George tugged Sapnap’s forearm that wasn’t wrapped in the headband and was surprised to feel him flinch. _‘He’s more wounded than he lets on.’_

Sapnap rolled his eyes with a smirk but walked after him without complaining.

 _‘Nick and I may have our disagreements,’_ he thought. _‘but at least I’m not alone anymore.’_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What's up gamers, it's me, ya girl, back with another chapter after all this time
> 
> It's Gogy time, baby! We finally get some Dream Team (- Dream) going on here!  
> I love George and Sapnap's interactions, they act like siblings, so I had to incorporate some in this chapter
> 
> -JY


	9. Chapter Seven

Nick shielded his eyes from the bright sunlight as he and George walked through the plains on the other side of the birch forest. He could feel his bruised legs begging him to give in, but he was determined to not let it show.

He wouldn’t admit it out loud, but he was grateful that George showed up when he did. He was certain that if George had gotten there later, he’d be dead, rotting away in that tower. The thought made him shudder.

But although Nick was alive, he was still more bruised than he was willing to admit. Every step he took made his body ache all over, and he was certain that George had noticed something was up with all the pauses Nick had asked him to make in the short time they had been walking.

As an attempt to not think about the pain he was in, Nick instead focused his thoughts on the current situation.

 _‘What the actual_ hell _happened to us?’_

It sounded asinine. I mean, being transported into a game? That’s the kind of stuff you’d see in shitty fanfiction, right? How would it even be _possible_?

Lost in thought, he barely heard George’s slowly accelerating footsteps until he snapped out of his thoughts due to a sudden screech.

“SHEEP!”

Nick blinked suddenly and looked around for George, quickly spotting him running down a hill of the prairie towards a flock of sheep. He began trying to run after him, but his run quickly slowed into an awkward limp as he felt every single muscle on his leg scream out in pain. _‘Yeah, I’m just gonna… sit this one out.’_

Instead, he observed George. He seemed to be catching up to the sheep, swiping his sword at them wildly. In the end, he somehow managed to strike down one of them. All the other sheep had run away, though.

He finally caught up to his friend, breathing slightly heavier from the effort. George looked up at him with a dejected look. He was full on panting, picking up the dropped materials.

“All the others got away…” he announced dejectedly between breaths. “I only have two wool.”

Nick snickered. “Don’t worry too much about it. You probably scared the entire prairie away with all that racket.” he told George in a friendly mocking tone.

“Hey!” George fake pouted, chuckling. He seemed to be about to punch Nick lightly in the shoulder, but clearly thought better of it, and lowered his arm once again.

“C’mon. Let’s try to find some more sheep.” Nick told him, tugging him along towards where he saw the sheep run.

[…]

Nick didn’t remember how long they had been walking for, but they had found the flock again, this time much closer to the birch forest they had previously been in. It seemed that the sheep were still agitated from the prior encounter with George.

“Try not to warn the entire forest that we’re here this time.” Nick whispered to George.

George merely grunted in response.

Nick snuck through the vegetation so that he was right in front of George, ready to catch any sheep that tried to run. He gave George a quick nod, and his friend sprinted forward, swiping at sheep so quickly that they barely had time to escape. Some weakened sheep ran in Nick’s direction, but Nick quickly finished them off. Soon enough, they had more than enough wool to make two beds.

“Yes!” they celebrated, pumping their fists in the air.

“Seems the two of us can actually cooperate when we really want to!” George added with a chuckle.

“Hey… don’t you think it’s kinda darker now?” Nick asked, looking up at the sky. Sure enough, it was alight with orange colors, and the sun was already sinking out of view.

“Sunset? Already?” George asked in surprise. “Did we really spend this long looking for sheep?”

“Doesn’t matter. We need to find shelter.” Nick began looking around for a place for them to make beds before it got too dark. He quickly noticed a small crevice in a mountain nearby, which seemed big enough for them to sleep but didn’t seem easy to access.

George looked towards the same direction as Nick. “That doesn’t seem like a bad place to stay in.” he muttered.

Unanimously agreeing, the two began walking towards the mountain before quick steps made them freeze in their tracks. The two looked wildly around, but it was getting late, and there was not enough light for them to be able to tell what was making that noise. The steps were getting faster and closer, though, and they could now hear low growling.

Nick didn’t waste time. He tugged on George’s shirt and forced himself to sprint towards the mountains, pulling him after him. Gripping the rocky side of the mountain with his hands, he climbed over to the crevice on the wall, George right behind him.

In a second, they were both seated at the edge of the crevice. The silhouette of the monster was still visible on the ground below them. It paced back and forth for a while, then growled and walked away. Nick and George allowed themselves a drawn-out sigh of relief, followed by a loud grunt of unfiltered pain.

“You’re really hurt, Nick.” George said in a tone of almost realization, concern evident in his voice.

“I knew you’d noticed.” Nick grunted, massaging his leg.

“Anyone could tell, idiot.” He huffed.

“Just put down the beds and leave me be.” Nick whined dramatically.

George huffed once again, and Nick could hear him crafting and putting down the beds as he stared into the starry night sky. Despite his current situation, he couldn’t deny that the sight was quite beautiful.

George slowly walked over to Nick, sitting down next to him, and admiring the night sky as well.

“Quite pretty.” he breathed quietly.

“Yeah.” Nick could only stare at the sky. He felt the pain on his body slowly ease and wondered if it was the calmness he felt at that moment or just his body numbing up. _‘I wonder if the others were as lucky.’_

While staring at the sky, Nick noticed an enormous shape flying far away in the sky, flapping its wings rhythmically. To him, it seemed almost unmistakable.

“Is that a fucking _dragon_?” he wondered out loud, unable to mask his amazement and shock.

George seemed just as surprised as he was, letting out a worried giggle in which Nick soon joined in.

 _‘Oh my God, we’re screwed if we can’t find the others.’_ Nick was sure that George was thinking the same thing.

Silence fell after a while. And it stayed that way for what felt like many minutes.

George was the one to break it. “I wonder if Dream’s okay.” he murmured out loud.

“I’m sure he’ll be alright.” Nick told him, almost fully confident in his answer. “Remember Manhunt? We’re supposed to hunt him, but he’s always dicking us over and we end up being the hunted instead of the hunters.”

Both Nick and George laugh lightly for a bit, looking at each other.

“Yeah, you’re right.” George gave Nick a small smile, then turned to look back at the stars. It was then when Nick realized how tired he seemed. “He’s okay.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's George and Sapnap again, and surprise, they still kinda don't know what to do
> 
> I wonder if that ending is foreshadowing something?
> 
> -JY


	10. Chapter Eight

Tingling. An annoying tingling was all that Clay could feel for a while. Or maybe his body was just blocking out other sensations. He couldn’t tell for sure.

He wanted to keep his eyes shut, if not just for a little longer, but the incessant itching sensation was proving too annoying for him to ignore. He slowly opened his eyes and was met with a wooden wall that seemed strangely familiar. It contained a single window, and a few rays of light were filtering through it.

A white mask with a smiley face laid on the ground in front of him. That’s when he had a sudden thought.

 _‘I’m… in Minecraft…?’_ Clay didn’t know whether to be amazed at how such a thing was possible or terrified at the fact that this could imply that dying in the game meant he died in real life. He decided that he was both amazed and terrified. That worked.

His friends, he assumed, were also in the game. Finding them seemed like the thing he should focus on after getting tools.

 _‘And after getting rid of that bothersome itching.’_ he added, suddenly shuddering involuntarily. _‘Where is it even coming from?’_

Soon, he noticed it came from his left forearm. He moves his right hand over his forearm to scratch it, but as he touched the outside of his sleeve he felt unnatural bumps on his forearm. Almost like something was wrapped around it. Something spiky, he presumed as he ran his fingers along his forearm and felt tiny sharp bumps underneath.

Clay pulled the sleeve of his forearm up and finally saw what was causing the itching. Deep purple rose-like stems were wrapped around his forearm, pulsing rhythmically every once in a while. The pulsing is what caused the itching, it seemed. Although, for some reason, it was like the itching was dying down.

Still, Clay didn’t care about the itching anymore. All that ran through his mind was, _‘What the hell is this thing…?!’_

 _‘Are you confused?’_ he heard himself ask.

No. That was most certainly _not_ Clay’s thoughts. That wasn’t his voice he was hearing in his head. It was… some other thing’s voice. Raspy and slithery, like a snake’s hiss. It made his skin crawl with goosebumps.

 _‘That’s an Ender Tendril on your arm.’_ The voice spoke once again.

Clay’s heart threatened to beat out of his chest. The confusion at being stuck in a game was now mingling with anxiety at the voice he was hearing. _‘Am I hallucinating…?!’_

 _‘Oh, not at all, human.’_ the voice told him sickeningly sweetly. _‘I can assure you that I am very much real.’_

 _‘W-what are you?!’_ he shot back at it, somehow stuttering in his own thoughts. _‘Where did you come from?!’_

 _‘Not even I know my origins.’_ The voice continued. The way it drew words out longer than they needed to made Clay’s heart rate speed up. _‘But you may call me… Ender.’_

 _‘Where the fuck am I?!’_ Clay asked the voice - Ender, it seemed.

 _‘There is no need for that kind of language, Clay.’_ Ender cooed tauntingly. _‘You’re in a village. Obvious, is it not?’_

 _‘How do you know my name? How can you talk to me?!’_ Clay could hear his thoughts become increasingly louder as he began to panic.

 _‘Slow down, human.’_ Ender taunted him again, its voice scornful. _‘You’re very curious. But so very restless too.’_

 _‘Answer my fucking questions.’_ Clay was beginning to get angry. Who was Ender and what did it want from him?

Claw could hear the smirk in Ender’s voice as it spoke. _‘Both of those questions have the same answer. But it’s a secret and I won’t tell. It’s for you to figure out’_

Clay looked down at his forearm again. The itching was almost gone, but he could still see the tendril pulsating in his arm, sometimes wrapping around it more tightly.

 _‘It’s because of the Ender Tendril.’_ he thought.

 _‘Very smart.’_ Ender congratulated him, almost sarcastically.

Clay placed his hand on the tendril and tugged at it, but it was unwilling to let go of his forearm and attempting to pull it made Clay wince with pain, as if the plant-like thing was digging deeper into his skin every time he tugged at it.

‘Take it off.’ He growled at Ender. He heard its dry chuckle echo in his mind.

 _‘I can’t.’_ it told him calmly. _‘It’s part of you now. You’ll never get rid of it.’_

Clay ignored it. He continue to pull the tendril, ignoring the pain that it caused him.

 _‘Can’t you feel it?’_ Ender spoke again. _‘It’s hurting you when you try to remove it.’_

Clay grunted with pain in response, continuing to pull the tendril. Ender made a “tsk” noise.

 _‘So intelligent, yet so foolish.’_ it mocked. _‘Don’t you get it, Clay? If you take the Ender Tendril off, or wound it mortally, it will kill you too.’_

Clay immediately stopped. He didn’t trust Ender, not one bit, but the Ender Tendril was hurting him more the harder he tugged at it. And if his life was truly at stake, he’d rather keep the tendril on him. Begrudgingly, he stopped pestering its stems.

 _‘Good boy.’_ Ender chimed.

 _‘You know, I really wish you’d just get off my head and leave me be.’_ Clay growled at it.

 _‘I’m afraid I won’t do that.’_ Ender mocked. _‘I’m part of you, just like the Ender Tendril. And there’s nothing you can do about it.’_

Suddenly, the door of the house Clay was in was opened gently. A head peeked in. It seemed like a cleric Villager. Which was unsurprising, as Clay was in a village.

“Ah, you’re awake!” the Villager told him, looking surprised. “You’ve been out for so long, half the village thought you were in a coma.”

The Villager rummaged in the bag he was carrying and took out some carrots, handing them to Clay. “What’s your name, traveler?”

Clay accepted the carrots, immediately biting down on one. “Call me Dream.” he told the Villager. “Do you know how I got here?”

“Oh, we found you near the village’s outskirts.” The Villager told him. “Our ruler allowed us to bring you in to take care of you and told us to bring you to him once you awakened.”

“Who’s your ruler?” Clay asked.

The Villager shuffled awkwardly. “Most of the village doesn’t know his name, and he doesn’t allow the ones who do to divulge it.” he answered sheepishly.

Clay nodded, biting the carrot again. “And I’m supposed to meet him, then?”

“Yes.” the Villager nodded. “He wants to see you as soon as possible. Come.”

Clay got up, following the Villager. As he walked though the village, eyes narrowed due to the bright sunlight, he noticed other Villagers staring at him and whispering curiously amongst themselves. He also noticed, with surprise, that the village was located right above a ravine and seemed to be much larger and much more advanced than usual villages. The buildings were bigger and stood tall on the village, the paths were wider and made of cobblestone, there was an enormous farm that he passed by, and it was surrounded by a tall, stone brick wall.

Looking down at the ravine, he could also see stairways in the sides of the ravine, which led down towards the bottom of the ravine. The ravine itself was fenced off to avoid any of the Villagers falling down to their death.

Near the ravine and in some of the more important-looking houses, Clay could see what looked like redstone contraptions in some areas of the village. He knew for a fact that the Villagers couldn’t have built those, as they can’t pick up blocks, much less make redstone contraptions. Maybe this so-called ruler was human too?

Yet Clay could only wonder, as the Villager guided him to a big, castle-like building right atop a higher cliff near the ravine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is where things start to get funky and it was an absolute blast to write
> 
> So anyways Dream time! About time, huh? Seems he's got a bit of a... situation in his hands. This Ender Tendril thing's pretty annoying, am I right?  
> And it was pretty lucky of him to spawn next to a village too. I wonder if something had dragged him there... *wink*
> 
> -JY


	11. Chapter Nine

_‘They’re really taking their time today.’_

Zak lounged on the makeshift couch, staring at the ceiling and thinking about nothing in particular. He had been anxiously awaiting Jesse and Bad’s return from their latest search for the whole day.

It had been a few days since Zak found Bad and he was taken in by Sally, Kevin, and Jesse. Every day since, Bad and Jesse would go out at least once to look for Dream, George and Sapnap. And every time they’d go out, they’d come back without even seeing them anywhere.

Zak could tell this was not at all helping Bad. He knew his best friend must be missing his other friends terribly, and he knew that the longer they took to find them, the more stressed he’d grow. He didn’t like that.

The entrance door being thrown open made Zak snap out of his thoughts in an instant. _‘Sounds like Jesse’s back.’_

He got up from where he was sitting and walked over to the entrance, Kevin and Sally following from different divisions. There, he saw a fidgeting Bad and a slightly less indifferent than usual Jesse.

“No news, then?” he asked them.

Jesse sighed tiredly. “It’s been days, and no sight of them anywhere in a 200 block radius.” she told him. “We might have to expand the radius again next search.”

“The searches have been taking longer and longer, and there’s still no sign of them.” Bad mumbled, fidgeting. “I’m really worried.”

“I can tell.” Zak told him warmly, attempting to comfort him. “Don’t stress about it too much. We’ll find them. I know we will.”

Bad merely hummed.

“Honestly, even I am a bit worried.” Jesse admitted. “I have no ties to these guys or anything, but the way Bad acts when we go another day without finding them stresses me out, I guess.”

“Did I hear that right?” Kevin teased, grinning. “Jesse is empathizing with someone she doesn’t know well?”

Jesse huffed. “Shut it, Spikes.”

“This is not good…” Sally mumbled. “I truly hope they’re okay, for their sake and yours.” She added, looking at Zak and Bad.

“Either way, it’s quite late right now.” Jesse looked out through the window. It was already nearly pitch black outside. “All of us should go to sleep.”

“I will, after I’ve sorted through my healing medicine. I’ll go finish that now.” Sally waved at them with a bright, yet tired smile, turning towards one of the divisions. “See you guys tomorrow!”

“I was actually just done with my stuff, so I’ll be going to bed right now.” Kevin opened his mouth in a yawn and flashed them a peace sign. “Seeya.”

Jesse left to her room without a word, only giving Zak and Bad an acknowledging nod.

Zak tugged on Bad’s cloak. “Let’s go to sleep. You need it.”

Bad let out a weak sigh. “Alright.” he said meekly.

The two of them made their way to the room with all the red beds. Zak hopped on the messy one he had slept in previously while Bad laid down on another bed nearby.

“Goodnight, Bad.” Zak told him softly. “Sleep tight.”

“Goodnight, Skeppy.” Bad mumbled, shuffling underneath the covers.

[…]

Zak woke up suddenly. He didn’t know why. It was seemingly for no rhyme or reason. But he was awake, and there was no light coming through the windows, so he knew he shouldn’t be.

He tossed and turned on the bed for a while longer. After deciding that he couldn’t fall back asleep, he instead sat up straight on the bed, staring at nothing and just thinking. About everything that had happened. But especially about a way to escape the game.

 _‘I wonder how we’re meant to get out of here.’_ He wondered, fidgeting in the bed. _‘Do we have to beat the game? That seems logical enough.’_ he didn’t want to think much about how hard it would be to beat one of the most infuriating mods compared to vanilla Minecraft.

How were they there in the first place? And why would anyone want to imprison them in a block game anyways?

_‘As fishy as that email was, I highly doubt it could do anything like literally transporting us into the game.’_

How would that even be possible? Being stuck in a game seems like something straight out of a fiction novel. But then again, there he was, sitting on a red bed inside a tower, not knowing if the next day would be his last.

He had a sudden, morbid thought.

_‘If we die in here, do we die in real life as well?’_

Zak shuddered at the thought. He’d rather not find out.

Instead of thinking about his situation, he thought of going back to sleep. It was quite late after all, and they usually woke up early so that they could make the most of the day. But a sudden rustle and an unmistakable gasp that sounded behind him made him rethink going to sleep. Zak turned back towards where he heard the noise. Bad was up on his bed, panting and shivering.

“Bad?” Zak whispered, giving his friend a warm look. “Is something wrong?”

Bad didn’t reply, instead hugging his knees and drawing in sharp breaths, still shivering. Zak was sure he wasn’t cold. He got up to his feet and walked over to Bad, sitting on the bed in front of him. Bad noticed him approaching with a glance, but he stayed quiet. Zak placed a hand on his shoulder.

“You okay?” he asked again.

“I-it…” Bad seemed to be struggling to muster any words. “Nothing… Just… it’s stupid.”

“Darryl, you’re nearly having a panic attack. I’m sure it’s not stupid.” Zak assured him, hand still on his shoulder. He scooted over to Bad’s left. “Just tell me what’s wrong.”

Bad stayed quiet for a while longer before replying. “… I had a nightmare.” he was looking down at the ground, like a child who had just woken up their parents about a nightmare.

“What about?”

“I-it was… about us. All of us were there, a-and I don’t know where we were, but it was dark and gloomy…” Bad murmured. Tears seemed to be threatening to fall at the corner of his eyes. “A-and then suddenly… some monster came out of nowhere and killed all the others. I was the last one alive.” Bad hugged his knees tighter. The tears were beginning to fall.

“When the monster started walking towards me to kill me, I heard their voices, Zak.” Bad’s voice began cracking. Zak just listened. “They were saying stuff like “help me”, “help us”, “please”….”

Bad seemed like he could say nothing more. All he was doing now was sniffling quietly and trembling. Zak could make out one last thing that Bad said, so quietly that he had to lean in to hear him.

“I don’t want any of us to die.”

His voice sounded so hopeless, so broken, that it saddened Zak as well. Sure, he didn’t want any of them to die either, but in a place like this it was most likely that they would.

 _‘Stop thinking like that.’_ he scolded himself. _‘Pessimism is the last thing Bad needs right now.’_

“Darryl,” he told his friend seriously. Bad looked up, his eyes puffy from crying. “look at me.” and so he did, taking his glasses off and wiping his eyes with the sleeve of his cloak. Zak gripped his shoulders firmly.

“We are not going to die.” he told Bad. “No matter what happens, we’re sticking together. We’ll protect each other, we’ll find the others, and we will _beat this fucking game_.”

Bad mustered a tiny, weak smile. He still didn’t seem sure at all, but he wasn’t looking as hopeless as he had looked before.

“Language.” he said weakly with a small chuckle.

“Don’t you “language” me, I’m trying to make you feel better!” Zak complained, smiling.

“Well, it sort of helped.” Bad got up to his feet. His eyes were now gleaming, and his halo shone brightly in the shack. He seemed much better than he did a while ago. “Thank you, Zak.”

Zak giggled, ruffling his friend’s hair. “No problem, baldy.”

“Don’t call me that!” Bad whisper-yelled, feigning anger. Zak forced down a snicker as to not wake anyone up.

They stood in comfortable silence for a while, enjoying each other’s company. Bad was the first to break it.

“Well, now I can’t sleep.” he whispered. “How about we sneak out to train and get food while the others are asleep?”

“Whoa, I didn’t know I was friends with a _criminal_!” Zak whisper-yelled dramatically, pretending to swoon. “How dare you suggest something like that!”

The two began giggling. It was comforting, and Zak hoped that it made Bad feel better.

“I’m just joking.” he told him. “Let’s go, Bad.”

The two of them walked down the stairs, trying not to make any more noise, and walked out into the night. It seemed to already be getting lighter, Zak noted. The sun must be close to rising.

Nonetheless, Bad immediately rushed out towards the gate.

“Careful! Don’t get eaten by giant birds!” Zak joked. Bad immediately stopped.

“Don’t say stuff like that, you muffin!” he squeaked as Zak began laughing.

And the two walked out the Gate into the forest, stone swords in hand, looking for mobs to fight so that they could get any better weapons.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're back with these guys again! They're trying to find the rest of the crew but they can't. Bad is worried and Skeppy is sad because of that
> 
> Also this one's a bit longer! Yay!
> 
> -JY


End file.
